During the presentation ceremony, Rahul Dravid told Adam Gilchrist that he should have included another spinner in the team for this match. It wasn’t a regret statement by Dravid as his team ended up on the winning side. Instead, it was a fair assessment of the pitch that gave batters difficult time in the middle.
The challenge was to adjust your game quicker and better than the opposition. And Rajasthan Royals outplayed the hosts Kings XI Punjab in it.
Rajasthan emerged victorious after their bowlers led by Kevon Cooper’s 3 for 23 restricted the hosts Kings XI Punjab to 145, a modest score considering the batting capabilities of the visitors.
The Dravid-led side duly chased it down with the help of Ajinkya Rahane’s third consecutive half-centry in 19 overs for the loss of just two wickets. Sanju Samson (47 not out) and Shane Watson (31) were the other major contributors in their victory. With the win Rajasthan reached 18 points and further consolidated their place in the playoffs.
After put in to bat first, Kings XI Punjab huffed and puffed to 145 for six despite captain Adam Gilchrist (42) and Shaun Marsh (77) sharing a 102-run stand for the second wicket. After losing opener Mandeep Singh in the first over, the Australian duo batted sensibly without taking unwanted risk and still kept the scoring rate at over seven per over.
At the end of the 13th over, Punjab were 100 for 1 and looked set for a big score for the big hitting Davids – Hussey and Miller – were yet to come. But some good death over bowling by Rajasthan bowlers, who exploited the slow nature of the pitch well, stopped their march.
While Cooper cleverly used his slow balls to outwit Punjab batsmen, Watson (1 for 19) troubled the opposition with his accuracy as the hosts couldn’t hit a single boundary in the last four overs. Cooper’s first victim was Gilchrist, who shrugged off his indifferent form to provide his team a strong platform to build a good score, off a slower one. The Punjab skipper tried to hit the ball too hard but found himself too early on the ball and ended up giving Cooper an easy return catch.
It was the beginning of the fall of Punjab batting. Cooper then fooled Marsh with another slow ball in the penultimate over and claimed dangerous Miller in the same over to send the last recognised batsmen back to the pavilion.
like Punjab, Rajasthan too started badly losing Dravid in the second over to left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma, who was playing his first match of the season.
As it happened with Punjab, the second wicket partnership bailed out Rajasthan innings as well. Rahane and Watson together added 61 runs. But the script stopped to follow the pattern right there.
Unlike Punjab, Rajasthan had another good partnership after that. After Watson got out to a bad ball, Sanju Samson joined Rahane in the middle. After that it was all about these two youngsters as they gave the opposition a lesson in batting on slow surface. Their unbroken 76-run stand between them took Rajasthan to an eight victory.
Brief scores
Kings XI Punjab: 145/6 in 20 overs (Shaun Marsh 77, Adam Gilchrist 42; Kevon Cooper 3/23) lost to Rajasthan Royals: 147/2 in 19 overs (Ajinkya Rahane not out 59, Sanju Samson not out 47) by eight wickets.